After Xiaomi, Court Lifts Ban Over OnePlus Smartphone Sales in India

The Delhi High Court has now lifted the ban on the sale of OnePlus handsets in India.

Earlier this month, sales of Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus had been banned because of a complaint filed by Micromax, which stated that OnePlus had infringed its exclusive tie-up with Cyanogen Inc. for the use of its software and trademark in the country, for its Yu series.

On the company’s blog, Carl Pei, OnePlus founder, said that they were not aware of the Micromax and Cyanogen deal, and currently they are working to replace Cyanogen with their own Android skin.

The judges of the Delhi High Court said the case shall be heard and decided afresh with an upcoming hearing on January 7th, 2015, and has directed Cyanogen and OnePlus to file written statements till the hearing, as per an The Economic Times report.

OnePlus and Xiaomi are both China-based smartphone makers having exclusive partnerships with Amazon and Flipkart respectively in India. While Indian smartphone companies like Micromax, Lava etc. were fending off foreign competitors like Samsung, Apple, HTC with budget handsets, these new foreign entrants increased the competition in the same space. Once these Chinese companies overcome the licensing and other hurdles, the game would get tougher for the indigenous companies and more interesting for Indian consumers.